Apparently locksmiths and firemenin Spain are refusing to assist local authorities with eviction orders and can one blame them? Imagine arriving at the homes of frail and confused pensioners or families unable to keep up mortgage or rental payments and having to help turf them out on to the street. Personal morality aside, there would be the shame of pushing through crowds of protesters to do the dirty deed, a veritable executioner sending a potentially vulnerable individual to a life of spiraling poverty and despair.

Len and Helen Prior, two of the victims of Spain’s disastrous property boom

But of course while as many as 50,000 Spaniards were evicted in the first half of 2012, leaving scores of repossessed homes peppering villages and towns, another 2 million vacant properties lie abandoned across the country, victims of the greedy real estate explosion that dribbled to an ignominious halt during the last decade.

Meanwhile an estimated 300,000 properties in Spain have been declared illegal with many due for demolition. Bravo! That’ll mean even more people cast out onto the street: the Spanish authorities really must be on a roll. Take Almeria’s Almanzora Valley where there are 12,000 ‘illegally’ built homes, nearly 1000 of which are under threat of the bulldozer. Many of these are owned by British expats who completed all the correct paperwork at time of sale and were cruelly given ‘illegal’ building permits by corrupt local councils. One retired English couple, Len and Helen Prior, have already had their dream house razed to the ground and are currently living in the property’s garage, the only building left standing.

The Priors who have been fighting their case in the Spanish courts since 2008 have had their first small taste of victory. The Ministry of Justice has at last ruled that the demolition was illegal because the Priors had not at the time been informed about the case being made against their property. They have been offered £26,000 compensation but half of this will need to be set against legal costs incurred. Rather deftly the small matter of compensation for their £350,000 demolished villa has been brushed under the carpet. Instead the Priors have been left to battle it out alone with their local Spanish council that was responsible for issuing them with the rogue building permit in the first place.

So just to recap, while many of Spain’s unemployed and evicted are setting up camp on the streets, others such as expats Len and Helen Prior are living surrounded by rubble because their homes have been demolished illegally. And all the while millions of empty properties are sitting like dead ducks on a barren landscape. Quite frankly, no wonder Spain is in a mess.

Although thousands of unoccupied properties blight the Spanish landscape and mournful ghost towns like dejected sirens, fail to lure new life to their empty streets, the Spanish government remains impervious, perversely appearing hell bent on making the problem much worse.

British expats, Helen and Len Prior, are still awaiting compensation for their demolished home

Just before the start of the Christmas festivities a retired couple from Yorkshire living in Albox in Andalucia were told that an appeal against having their £120,000 home demolished, had been rejected. Despite originally having been issued with a full planning licence by the town hall, Spain’s highest court decreed that their property had been built illegally on non-urban land and would have to be pulled down.

The couple had bought their home in good faith but were betrayed by lawless practices at the height of the Spanish building boom that saw rogue developers, corrupt lawyers and town hall officials issuing illegal planning licences to trusting expats and Spanish nationals. Back in 2008 retirees Len and Helen Prior were the first British victims of such unscrupulous dealings and watched as their dream home was destroyed before their eyes. They were forced to live in a garage – the only part of their property remaining- and have still not been compensated for their loss.

And of course the biting irony in all this is that the Spanish government is desperate to sell the estimated two million vacant propertiesclogging up the country, and last year even had the audacity to conduct housing road shows in the UK to persuade Britons to buy in Spain. Meanwhile in Andalucia they’re busy wheeling out the wrecking ball to demolish yet another expat home! With 12,000 illegal properties in the Almanzora Valley and up to 300,000 in Andalucia alone there’s never been a better time to take up demolition as a career in Spain.

Fortunately for the distressed couple in Albox, campaigning groups AUAN and SOHAwhich represent more than 1000 homeowners in Almanzora Valley, have come to the rescue. Between their members they have managed to raise enough funds to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). With any luck the couple’s home might receive a stay of execution. Maura Hillen, the tireless chairman of AUAN, wants to see the right to property guaranteed and upfront compensation given to those whose homes are threatened with demolition.

Surely it would be in the Spanish government’s interests to find an urgent solution to the ‘illegal’ property issue and thus restore faith in a flawed system. It’s time for Spain to start attracting new buyers based on transparency and good practice and to start rebuilding confidence. Until that happens, and until the country acknowledges the wrongs dealt against innocent pawns, it can forget bringing any more glitzy housing road shows to the UK for the foreseeable future.